Pirelli explains what caused F1 tyre blowouts in Qatar

Valtteri Bottas, Lando Norris, George Russell and Nicholas Latifi all suffered front-left tyre failures during F1’s first visit to the Losail International Circuit.

Bottas had been running on his tyres past Pirelli’s suggested stint length, while Norris was called in prematurely by McLaren after only 24 laps on his hards.

After a detailed investigation by Pirelli’s at its headquarters in Milan, it confirmed that the failures were due to “the amount of time these tyres were run on kerbs”.

The statement read: “The ongoing analysis that Pirelli is carrying out on the tyres of the cars that suffered deflations during the Qatar Grand Prix has provided some initial conclusions that exclude any production defects.

“Based on the findings obtained so far, the origin of the problem is mainly due to the amount of time these tyres were run on the kerbs, at high speed and with considerable lateral and vertical loads: a situation unique to the Losail circuit. The heavy demand caused by running over these kerbs, which isn't possible to measure from the data available before the race, damaged the tyre construction and led to a loss of pressure in the internal sidewall, which consequently caused the structure to collapse after several seconds.

“Pirelli has shared all the technical details of the analysis carried out so far with the FIA and the teams.”

Speaking ahead of this weekend’s inaugural Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, Mercedes’ analysis of Bottas’ tyre failure in Qatar lined up with Pirelli’s, with the Finn also blaming Losail’s high-speed corners and the kerbs.

“I think Qatar was pretty tough on the tyres, especially those high-speed sections, I think it was Turns 12, 13 and 14 putting a lot of load on the outside front tyre,” Bottas said.

“And it’s a combination. I obviously did quite a long stint, so that wears the tyre and also the kerbs were quite harsh, so it was that and a combination with the stress on the tyre.  

“Like I said after the race there was no warning before that happened and it’s quite difficult to pick it up. In a nutshell, we should have maybe stopped one lap earlier, but it is easy to say it afterwards.”

It’s not the first time this season Pirelli has been forced to investigate tyre failures as Max Verstappen and Lance Stroll were affected in Baku earlier in the year.

This forced Pirelli to change the rear tyre construction to make it stiffer and more robust.